The Calima arrives

When you live in a house, the weather is something you hear and look out at. When you live on a sailing boat the weather is something you feel and smell. You cannot close the doors and the windows and create your own micro climate inside. You feel the changes in temperature and humidity much more acutely. You can smell the rain in the air and the electricity before a storm; and even in a marina you feel the shifts in wind speed and direction immediately in the movement of the boat.

The weekend was lovely. It was calm – unusual for an acceleration zone (a zone where the wind is compressed by mountains and blows much stronger) – and very hot. The marina was full, lots of people having come to spend the weekend on their boats either sailing or simply enjoying being on water in the heat. We took Quirky for long walks late in the evening when it was still hot, but less so than during the day. Having grown up in typhoon zones, I could feel that something was on the way but had no idea what. It turned out to be the Calima.

While walking on Sunday night the wind started to pick up until we turned a corner and were faced quite literally with a blast of air so hot that felt as though it came from a furnace. It was so unexpectedly hot that I even started looking around to see if there was a fire!

Sahara winds

We had heard about the Calima, but had only felt it marginally before. Now we were, and still are, right in the middle of it. The Calima is a strong wind that blows over the Sahara picking up heat and sand, and then blows over the Canary Islands. It is truly an incredible phenomena. The wind we felt on Sunday night was just the forerunner. It became stronger and stronger, hotter and hotter. By this afternoon it was unbearably hot – 45°C where we are and 58°C in the mountains.

There is so much sand in the air that you can’t see to the other side of the bay or the mountain range that is usually clearly visible. All these photos were taken on the pontoon where the Morgan is berthed at four in the afternoon. Normally you wouldn’t even think about looking directly at the sun.